When Ubuntu users want to try other Ubuntu flavors, e.g. Xubuntu and Lubuntu, they usually just install their meta packages:

$ sudo apt-get install xubuntu-desktop

or

$ sudo apt-get install lubuntu-desktop

apt-get can install their dependencies automatically. However, when users want to remove the alternative Ubuntu flavors completely, they are out of luck, because inter-dependencies among many packages can be rather complex, and apt tools simply does not automatically remove the dependencies of meta packages.Continue reading Removing alternative Ubuntu flavors completely

Starting from 12.10, Ubuntu no longer offered non-PAE kernels. Some Pentium-M processors do not announce the PAE flag, although they actually have the PAE capability. When doing a release upgrade from 12.04, the Ubuntu release upgrade tool will complain of missing PAE feature on such computers and then abort after printing a link to the EnablingPAE document on the Ubuntu community help website. However, this document only covers fresh Ubuntu installation on such computers, leaving release upgrade users out in the cold.Continue reading Upgrading Ubuntu 12.04 to 14.04 on Pentium-M computers

Although it’s not recommended for large scale IPsec deployments because the Pre-Shared Key must be shared among users, IKEv1 with PSK and Xauth is an easy-to-deploy option and is well supported by mobile devices powered by iOS and Android. Moreover, IKEv2 is not supported by the built-in VPN client in Android yet.

In this tutorial, we’ll install strongSwan 5.3.3 in openwrt 15.05, configure IKEv1 with PSK and Xauth, and finally setup the built-in VPN clients in Android and iOS so they can connect to it.